On Lavender Tides: Volume 1

Jekua, Books 1-2

By: Travis M. Riddle

Narrated by: Graham Halstead, Rebecca Woods

Ever since he was a kid, all Balt Vana wanted was to be a world-renowned Jekua Summoner like his grandmother, battling other Summoners in front of audiences of thousands.

From where he stands now, living up to the Vana name feels impossible. But when his best friend Alani–an initiate at the local Church–is sent on a pilgrimage to find her path in life and the god she will follow, Balt sees the perfect opportunity to launch his career by escorting her across the archipelago and its purple seas.

The islands are filled with monsters to imprint and Summoners to battle, with every victory bringing him one step closer to his dream. It will take more than just his family name to reach the same heights as his grandmother, but Balt won't stop until he does.

Balt's journey continues at the Volukho Wildlife Center: an enormous wildlife reservation that houses rare, endangered Jekuas in a jungle called the Qwisdeep. Traveling through the reserve’s lush greenery and glowing flora with magical monsters in his sights is the best experience Balt could have ever dreamed of.

But Alani is growing increasingly frustrated having to remind her friend that this is not a vacation, it’s her pilgrimage, and that they are here for the Church. The whole reason he’s even on this journey is to aid and protect her, but he has always had a one-track mind, and nothing matters more to him than imprinting Jekuas.

While the jungle may be home to countless beautiful creatures, there are also untamed dangers lurking in its shadows, and Balt’s reckless nature may very well get them stranded in the Qwisdeep.

©2022 Travis M. Riddle (P)2022 Podium Audio

super interesting new series

The twist on Pokémon here is so interesting and well thought out. Getting the first two books here is such a great deal!

I enjoyed the book

I liked the journey and the characters, I was a little surprised when I first started listening because the story is similar to Pokémon. After getting over my initial shock, I enjoyed the story and I will continue reading the series.

Good series, great narration

I read the 1st book as an ebook. When the audiobook went up for sale I listened to book 2 that way.
I am glad that I did.

Overall
I have really enjoyed reading these books so far. This series takes inspiration from Pokemon, and follows Balt and Alani as they adventure together and explore the world. Balt wants to be the best Jekua trainer there ever was, and Alani is on a pilgrimage. I have really enjoyed both of their characters and they balance each other out very well. I will admit, I have loved Pokemon ever since I was a kid, so maybe I am a bit biased.

I'm a little surprised to say that I enjoyed book 2 more then I enjoyed book 1.
I want to learn more about the world and solve some mysteries presented to the reader. Eagerly awaiting book 3.

Performance
The narration in book 2 is incredible. Graham Halstead and Rebecca Woods do a fantastic job at making Balt and Alani come alive. These narrators can convey so much emotion in their speech that it elevates the listening experience for me significantly.

Story
I can tell that Travis has really put a lot of thought and effort into how his setting influences the characters, and how the characters influence each other. Balt and Alani are our 2 main characters, but there are many other side characters that appear in books 1 & 2. The world Travis has created feels like stepping into a region in Pokemon, but with more fleshed out characters and motivations that make sense. Character dialogue feels natural and flows well.
It seems that Travis is leaning away from certain tropes that have long overstayed their welcome in the fantasy genre and it is a breath of fresh air.

I enjoyed the book

was like a fun remaining of pokemon + digimon. Looking forward to exploring some obvious concepts such as Human/Jekua combat, or the more sinister background plots.

Pokemon fanfiction

It's a bit a slow but well written. Not sure if this is a web novel but it feels serialized like one.
Also there's a part where they celebrate preventing some animals from being hurt by eating steak.

Really Enjoyed It!

Good world building! The world actually feels lived it but also don't need an encyclopedia to understand!
I love the characters! Our main duo's relationship is a joy to witness. And the author does a good job making them both competent but in a believable way. They both have baggage that is relatable and makes for good conflict.
Overall, it's just a really fun adventure that I look forward to keep listening to!

Out of hundreds of books, this is by far the worst I've ever experienced.

Can't believe I got through as this. I wanted to like this as the premise was unique to me for an attempt to put in a book format.

The writing quality was atrocious. Reminded me of a low complexity writing style that would maybe indicate the book was for elementary school children but some of the subject matters seen makes me think that's not the case. It's entirely too adult at certain points for a school child, which means that it likely was unintentional and the writing was just plainly bad.

I think the bad writing style leaned heavily on familiarity with Pokémon. Being unable to have a talent for world building as ambitious as they wanted to so instead leaned more on an existing franchise to do the heavily lifting. It's a cheap move and really shows through with some poor abilities lto use descriptors on the world building so my only option was to just refer to something else to make up for it.

The characters are soooooooo badly written and one note. I just could not at all understand why some more time wasn't spent on them to get a reader to care. Some of the poor writing on the characters are sometimes so overexagerated and reliant on an attempt to plug in some cheap trick due to the inability to once again be unique or have the talent to make a good character. An early example of this is one of the characters has this just lame, poorly written scene of a 3 minute spapshot of dealing with alcoholic parents that is so overly exaggerated and on the nose that it made me literally cringe at the author and seeing what they were desperately trying to do to seem deep. It was incredibly painful for all the wrong reasons as it really sets you up on how bad the writing is going to be.

And the plot.... Oh my word. Terrible terrible terrible. I hate to shred into this so fiercely but... It was not good. I can not believe how lazy and poor quality the writing was trying to desperately get a plot off the ground. Like, I just can't see how this is real? How did a draft not catch how poor this plot was or was the author really trying hard to capture that 'out of nowhere Pokémon plot' feel that you get commonly at the beginning of some of those earlier Pokémon games? I don't even think Pokémon was as bad as this was but its a little easier to get away with in a game as there are collectable aspects, game mechanics and visuals to distract away from the plot to get entertainment from. They does NOT work for a book.

Goodness this was garbage.

I sometimes run into bad books that I give 1 star too because it was bad and think to myself 'wow that was the worst' but then I run into actual worst books I've ever read and feel bad for those other 1 stars I have because when compared to the 1 star I'm giving now.... This 1 star is the actual worst leagues beyond the other 1 star I gave.
This is that 1 star, this was so bad that I feel bad not correctly representing what a true 1 star is from those other 1 stars. This is the most perfect definition of a 1 star and honestly bottom of the barrel worst 1 stars that I seriously am considering going back and rethinking how awfully critical I was to those other 1 star books were because compared to this, those other 1 stars were not 'this' level of 1 star.

This is that bad.